


Going To The Movies

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-21
Updated: 2010-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-18 16:49:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/191063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Sirius gets injured in the line of duty and James tells Lily to take care of him.</i> Written in November 2010.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going To The Movies

  
`I knew we made a mistake when we gave you the key.´

Lily stands in front of him, giving him an incredulous glare, said key in her hand.

`You say _we_ as if you had any say in the matter.´

Sirius groans. He has a clear, crisp memory of the day James told him he was going to give Lily a key to their flat: “ _But what if she violates my privacy? What if she comes in when I'm in the shower or when I'm jacking off? Are you crazy, Prongs? Had you even considered masturbation?_ – _Please restraint yourself._ – _The whole point of getting our own flat was running away from the nagging of our mothers. Why would you want to have another woman in here now that we've achieved freedom?_ ”

Sirius still thinks he should have won that argument. Now Lily - in his own home - is looking pointedly at his bandaged arm.

`Getting injured in your first mission,´ she comments with a sharp, teasing voice. `Could you be more pathetic?´

Sirius huffs. Should have seen this coming, of course. At least she is not fawning over him like Peter does, or panicking like James, or insisting that he needs rest and to be left alone like Remus. Now that he thinks about it, maybe he wouldn't mind a little fawning over him from Evans. It's unbearable when Peter does it but she is _a girl_ and well, that's the dream, isn't it, having a girl nursing your war wounds.

`What are _you_ doing here?´ He asks, lifting his legs and sitting cross-legged on the couch.

He watches her look around the flat – he knows she is mentally calculating if they have any kind of food in the place. So she's going to cook me dinner, Sirius thinks. That constitutes fawning, definitely. He is going to torture her with that for years and years. She unbuttons her heavy winter coat and starts taking off her gloves.

`James told me to look after you.´

`Potter did? I'm a glorious hero for the cause but I'm no invalid, you know.´

`I'm not going to treat you like one. You're still going to do the dishes.´

`I'm a wizard. I can the dishes from here.´

She walks to him, getting hold of a chair that was in her way and returning it to its place by the coffee table.

`It will be a good education for you, some household duties,´ she tells her. Sounds ominous.

Sirius presses his lips together in a pout and holds his arm dramatically.

`But it hurts so much! My arm! Ah the pain!´

Teasingly Lily throws her glove at his head. She looks down at his arm and for a moment she stops, drawing a sharp breath – they both know what that wound means. It's a first step. He's still handling the lowest of the low missions and this was just a scratch it was _nothing really_ , almost just a badge of courage for the little boy that Sirius still is, but the wounds also means: _this is how it starts_. Until now they could pretend nothing it's really wrong, they could pretend the word “war” was not in their plans, their minds and the tip of their tongues, they could pretend they were immortal. But Sirius was hurt. That changes everything.

(And Lily knows this, is horribly terrifyingly aware of this, and she can't stand it, not when looking at Sirius sitting on the couch and holding his injured arm in joke but thinking _this is no joke_ thinking _hell, even Sirius fucking Black can get hurt_ and we are not talking about some heroic Quidditch accident he can brag about later and not when that time his hand got burnt in Potions in their Fifth Year because apparently he is too clever to follow textbook instructions.)

`Come on,´ she says, picking his coat from where it lies, crumpled and unconsidered, on the back of a chair.

`What are you doing?´

`We're going out.´

`Are you mental, Evans?´ He points at the bandages.

`You're not ill. You're _injured_ and a very small injury at that. Sad. You can still go out.´

`But- but-´

She grabs the collar of his jumper and forces him to stand up – after some complicated rearranging of his limbs, almost falling over in the process. Girl is harsh, mutters Sirius.

`Out, I've said. The weather is freezing and foul and completely lovely to go see a movie.´

`A movie?´

`Yes. You know what movies are, don't you?´

`Of course I know, don't be daft. I go to movies all the time.´

`Hurry then, and you are paying.´

*

At any given time Lily Evans carries with her Wizard money _and_ Muggle money, just in case. Every time that they go out in the Muggle world Lily takes care of exchanging Sirius's money for Muggle currency but really, Sirius thinks she is probably ripping him off in the conversion and anyone who would think Lily Evans would never do such thing obviously doesn't know Lily at all, Sirius knows her, she is the devil, scamming him just because he has no idea of how Muggle coins and notes work is just the sort of thing Lily Evans would do.

`How come I am paying? I'm the first martyr fallen in battle. You are taking care of me. Why am I paying?´

`For services rendered.´

` _Services_? Why, Evans, you sound like a floozy.´

`Oi. Behave.´

They are in the queue for the tickets – that's what he has gathered from Lily's explanations, after somewhat randomly informing him that “ _this theatre was built in 1937_ ” and, why would he care? Lily was just being a smart-ass, that's what.

It's taken them half an hour to get here; for some reason Lily insisted on taking a Muggle bus downtown – her only explanation came in a cryptic “ _it's good for you_ ” and a friendly punch to the arm (the non-injured arm).

( _Distract him_ , Lily is thinking to herself, reciting it like a chant. _Show him there's a world outside, outside our little corner, outside this bloody stupid war._ )

Now – tickets sorted out already and Lily has promised to buy some candy inside with what they have left, and it's not like Sirius is going to refuse new candy-oriented experiences – they are just waiting with the rest of the audience for the doors to open. Sirius had no idea there was going to be so many people here (he feels oppressed). He had no idea you went to see movies _with other people_ , he thought it was like watching television, just you and your mates (he feels silly).

`Hey, Evans.´

`Yes?´

`I have confession to make.´

`My, Sirius, that sounds dreary.´

`I have not done this before.´

`What? Go out with a girl without any hope of coping a feel, I imagine you haven't.´

`Ha ha, very funny, your world-famous comedy. Forget it.´

He actually makes the melodramatic gesture of walking away but Lily grabs his arm and stops him. She leaves her own arm around Sirius's and he wonders if people here would be thinking they are a couple – for some reason he finds the thought hilarious, how nobody suspects they are wizards, it's almost exhilarating, being surrounded by people who had _no idea_.

`No, what?´ Lily presses on.

`I've never actually been to the movies.´

`But you said–´

`I know what movies are, okay? I've seen some, three – Remus has a tv. It's just that, I've never been to a Muggle cinema and done this – this thing.´

`You don't have to do anything, Sirius. Don't look so constipated. Just sit down and look at the screen and relax. It's no big deal.´

Sirius shrugs and looks away. There are so many people here.

`Why are there so many people?´

`It's Saturday night. Muggles also go out and have fun, you know.´

`Uh.´

Sirius must admit he does not spend much time thinking about what Muggles do and don't with their weekends. After all the only Muggle-related people he knows closely are Lily and Remus and they do what the rest of the wizards do – except when they use strange words or strange notions like doing the washing up yourself and that kind of thing. Sirius shudders; every time he sees a large crowd these days he thinks about what Voldemort and his followers could do to it, images of destruction conjuring up in his mind without prompting, and he imagines what would happen if the Death Eaters attacked here now, with these many Muggles. _Muggles_. Ultimately what the other side wants is a world without Muggles. For a moment Sirius thinks he can't breathe. In a world without Muggles there would be no Lily Evans and then, what would James do with his time? Such an appalling idea.

`Also, it's winter, and going to the cinema where is warm is cheaper than central heating,´ she adds. Sirius has no idea what that means.

`What are we going to, er, see? There are many different movies, right?´

Lily smiles at his uncertainty. Shit. So he has only ever seen three movies and has no idea how this works. That's not something to be embarrassed about. He _is_ embarrassed. Lily is looking at him as if thinking “well, well, so you don't know everything”. He should know everything. At least _half_ of everything, and James could have the other half covered.

`I gave it a lot of thinking,´ she says. `With you being a _complete guy_ and all that I imagine you like action films or westerns or anything with a lot of shooting. But seeing as you are _injured_ I thought it might not be such a good idea, let's not get you over-excited.´

`What sort of movies do you like?´

`Mmm, horror movies, I guess.´

`Why don't we go see something of the sort?´

Lily looks at him in an odd way. Her eyes seem almost soft, worried, and ashamed.

(Lily had thought about it, but somehow the idea of Sirius in a dark theatre watching a film about things that creep in the night and attack you when you least expect them makes her feel uncomfortable. He is not a baby and he sure wouldn't appreciate her – what, protecting him? Fawning over him? Ugh. He'd probably be angry. But Lily has a thing called _tact_ and she is definitely not going to take him to see _The Satanic Rites of Dracula_ )

`They... weren't showing any of those,´ she lies.

Sirius nods, completely trusting.

They end up going to a film about Vikings. Sirius thinks it's pretty cool, though he has only other two movies to compare it with. But there's Viking fighting and a feast and girls in very revealing clothes (Sirius likes that the best) and though it is very distracting sitting in the dark with eighty other people (Sirius is always completely aware of everything going around him and he misses bits of the plot and then has to turn to Lily and ask _What's that?_ ) he has to admit the candy Lily bought is pretty good and his arm doesn't hurt so badly now.

*

  
Lily quickly takes off her coat and leaves it – rather messily, Sirius notes gleefully – over the arm of the couch.

`A cup of tea?´ She asks.

`Bloody hell yeah. It's freezing out.´

`This is not my house, you realize that?´ She says but she making her way towards the kitchen already. `This is _your_ house.´

`But I'm injured.´

He thinks he hears her curse under her breath. Sirius looks at his hands: the tips of the fingers have gone white with cold. He breathes on them. The cinema was so warm but the journey back completely destroyed his will to live. He hates winter. Wearing so many clothes is such a bother. Though boys and girls look cute with scarves but he is not that superficial. His arm feels a bit numb. He prefers the pain. It's probably just the cold. Sirius thinks that, if possible, he wouldn't like to die in winter. That must be the worst. Sirius thinks that, _if possible_ , he wouldn't like to die at all.

`Does it hurt much?´

Lily is back with two cups of tea. Sirius hasn't even heard the kettle, he must have been distracted. He offers her a weak smile.

`Horribly. But I'm a brave man.´

Lily sits by her side. Little by little, thanks to the hot cup (it's the Pride of Portree cup from the time he and James bought the whole set of Quidditch League team cups) in his hand, he is regaining feeling in his fingers and remembering warmth. She sits very close to him.

(She doesn't want to talk about it or hear about it – she, too, would like nothing more than to pretend everything is just fine and the war is going to end by next Friday and this is just one of their adventures. Lily, too, pretends she is immortal. But this is not about her and James said “ _take care of him_ ” and no one in history could ever refuse James Potter when he looks at you with those eyes and that ridiculous expression as if his kitten and his dog and his own and also all the unicorns left in existence had just been murdered. Truth is: James didn't even have to ask her.)

`What was it?´

Lily's voice is small and low and Sirius is not even going to pretend he doesn't know what she is asking. His expression darkens almost as fast as Lily's became gentle all of the sudden. It makes him feel worse than any other thing: Evans should not have to go sweet on him, that is the world gone mad and Sirius wants the world to make sense again.

`Just – mmm – a Crucio,´ he replies. Merlin, his voice sounds so weird, he hopes it's only to himself.

And then he feels Lily's hand on his shoulder, rubbing up and down his arm, almost shyly, like she has no idea what she is doing; the touch is not exactly like a mate's (though he gets the feeling that's what she is trying to convey) but it's not exactly a girl's either.

`It's fine,´ he says.

`You don't have to say that, if you don't –´

`No, it's... Not fine, it's rotten, obviously. But I'm okay with getting hurt, sort of. I didn't think it would hurt so much, the thing itself. It was surprising. It hurt a lot, Lily. Did you know that?´

`Yeah. I mean, no. I have no idea. I can only imagine.´

Sirius feels utterly pathetic now. This is not what he had in mind when he pictured somebody nursing him. But it's okay, in a way. With James, Remus, Peter, there are certain things he does not want to say. They are his friends and he wants to protect them in a way, he guesses. But with Evans is okay. He doesn't know why – maybe because he thinks she can take it? Maybe it's because she already thinks he is weak so he doesn't have to live up to any expectation.

`I don't want to do this to anyone,´ he says softly. `That's the awful bit, really. I can't imagine how it feels to hurt somebody like this. I have never – I mean, I would do it, if our lives were in danger. That's the point. But right now I just think: How can anyone do this? Do you think we will have to kill people?´

`I don't know, Sirius. I know the other side is willing to.´

`How do you come back from that? If I ever kill someone... how is anyone ever going to like me after that?´

She has no answer for that. Her answer is a brush of her fingertips along his forearm. Sirius doesn't know what kind of answer that is but he feels like it's something he can hold on to for now. She leaves her hand there, resting, around his wrist.

`Next time... Can I choose the movie?´ He asks. Lily looks confused by the sudden change of subject. `You said there were many movies. Next time I would like to choose.´

`Next time?´

`Yes.´

Lily nods. Her expression brightens. Sirius swears to Merlin is like watching streetlights light up.

`Next time, I'm paying,´ she tells him.

That he has to see. Sirius thinks he'd like, if possible.. - makes a mental note of it, actually: not to die before going to the movies with Lily again. He decides this is a most excellent reason to survive this bloody war.


End file.
